Can I use number of the remaining things with the word "rest"?

If there are 3 sick people, and two of them become healthy, can I say "The rest of 3 people are sick"

Risposte

fuhjuhp

18 ago 2022

Inglese (Regno Unito)

Kind of, but your example sentence doesn't sound natural for two reasons:
1) usually "rest" would refer to more than just one person. You could instead say "Three people were ill. Two of them recovered, but the other is still poorly" (use "the other" instead of "the rest" when it's just one person)
2) Don't say "the rest of three people". Say one of these instead:
"50 people were ill. 18 recovered, but the rest are still sick" (just "the rest", not "the rest of 50")
or
"Some people got better, but the rest of the people who were ill haven't recovered yet"

Utente esperto

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crxzy

19 ago 2022

Turco

@fuhjuhp

I mistyped the question, I meant 5* people were ill at the beginning.

I'm changing the question a bit, I actually want to emphasize the weirdness or ridiculousness of the first subject(s) in a sentence that involves "rest" by mentioning numbers of the "normal" ones. I mean if there is a group of something and if only the one thing is different and unfamiliar to others, I should be able to show its irrelevance by mentioning the number of normal things (rest of them)